Vilnius (AFP)
A quadruple Cristiano Ronaldo launched Portugal to a predictable victory in Lithuania (5-1), which has mostly allowed the champions of Europe to confirm their jump in qualifying for the Euro-2020 Tuesday in Vilnius.
The five-time Golden Ball opened the scoring with a penalty (7) and, after seeing the Baltic team return to the score (28), reassured his side thanks to a blunder from the local goalkeeper (62) and two caviars of Bernardo Silva (65, 76).
"CR7" has thus increased its international goals record to 93 goals in 160 games against Portugal. Already striker last Saturday in Serbia, William Carvalho set the final score (90 + 2).
Portugal, which had badly started its qualifying campaign with two draws conceded at home against Ukraine (0-0) and Serbia (1-1), has chained after his success in Belgrade (4-2) Saturday to settle in 2nd place in Group B, with 8 points.
The Lusitanians are now in a good position to qualify alongside Ukraine, leader of the standings with five lengths ahead and two more matches. Portugal, it has not yet confronted Luxembourg (October 11 in Lisbon) and will move to Kiev on October 14.
Tuesday night in Vilnius, Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring on a whistled penalty for a hand in the surface of Palionis (0-1, 7th).
Portugal made a marking error that allowed Andriuskevicius to restore the tie on the corner (1-1, 28th). Without Pepe, injured, the men of Fernando Santos had already demonstrated a certain defensiveness on Saturday in Serbia.
After countering several strikes by Cristiano Ronaldo and his young partner Joao Felix, Lithuanian goalkeeper Ernestas Setkus ruined everything by letting a shot from the Portuguese captain rebound against his own body to finish in his nets (1-2, 62).
After the break, Portugal finally breathed, taking off thanks to the assists of Bernardo Silva and the finishing work of the striker of Juventus Turin.
© 2019 AFP